Elevator Accidents

White Plains Lawyer for Elevator Accidents

Elevator accidents can result in catastrophic injury or even death. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, elevator accidents injure around 17,000 people every year in the country. When these types of accidents occur at a construction site, workers may be horribly injured whether they were positioned within the elevator cab, standing beneath it in the shaft, or standing outside it. If you were injured or a loved one was killed in an elevator accident, you should discuss your situation with experienced White Plains construction accident attorney Mark Siesel.

Elevator Accidents

Elevator accidents can happen at construction sites in many different ways. Workers can get caught between the elevator’s moving parts. Workers can be injured in an elevator or its platform may collapse. Workers can fall down a shaft and be severely injured or killed. Most people do not have enough saved to cover the medical bills and lost wages associated with serious work injuries. Additionally, workers’ compensation benefits don’t cover the full scope of a worker’s losses. If you work at a construction site and you’re injured due to an elevator accident or your loved one is killed in an elevator accident, you may have grounds to pursue relief in a lawsuit.

Section 200

New York Labor Law 200 requires owners and contractors to take reasonable steps to protect workers on the job. The elevator and the construction site around it are supposed to be arranged, conducted, equipped, and operated with an eye towards providing reasonable safeguards for workers’ and visitors’ lives. If you were injured because an owner or contractor failed to arrange the elevator or the area around it to provide safety to workers, you may have a claim under section 200.

Section 240

New York Labor Law 240 is also known as the Scaffold Law. It is meant to protect against gravity-related injuries, which many elevator accidents are. This law requires owners and contractors, with some exceptions, to provide specific safety features, such as scaffolding and pulleys, to a construction site. If you are a construction worker working on or around elevators who wasn’t given safety equipment and was therefore injured, you may be able to seek damages under section 240. You will need to show: (1) you faced an elevation-related risk that the statute was supposed to reduce and (2) the statutory violation caused your injuries.

Section 241(6)

Section 241(6) specifies that a construction site needs to be arranged in accord with Part 23 of the New York Industrial Code. Part 23 includes detailed rules about many different aspects of a construction site. For example, passenger or freight elevators that are being installed can be used before the building is completed to carry people and material during construction. However, certain requirements must be met. Similarly, there are requirements related to floor landing openings in hoistway enclosures; they must have a solid door that runs across the full width of the opening. It cannot not be less than 78 inches in height. If you were injured because a compliant solid door was not provided in the floor landing opening, and so you fell into the shaft, you may have a basis to sue for damages under section 241(6).

Section 241-A

New York Labor Law section 241-A provides that workmen in elevator shaftways should be guarded by sound planking with a thickness of at least two inches. The planking should be set across the opening at levels no more than one story below or two stories above. They should also be protected by any other method the rules of board specify. When this law or the relevant rules of the board are violated and an elevator accident results, it may be appropriate to sue for damages.

Premises Liability

There are instances in which damages for injuries sustained in elevator accidents may be pursued in a premises liability lawsuit. For instance, if you are a visitor to someone else’s building just after construction, but there is a remaining danger when using the elevators, of which you weren’t warned, you may bring a lawsuit for damages incurred as a result.

Hire a White Plains Lawyer After Your Elevator Accident

Elevator accidents can be devastating to workers and their families, or any visitor to a construction site who finds himself at the wrong place at the wrong time. Catastrophic and fatal injuries are both devastating and financially ruinous, particularly if the worker is the only wage earner in the household. If you were injured in an elevator accident or a loved one experienced wrongful death, you should call our firm. Mark Siesel is a tough, seasoned White Plains construction accident lawyer. He has 35 years of litigation experience representing injured workers in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, along with Westchester, Putnam, Kings, Orange, Dutchess, Sullivan, Rockland, and Ulster Counties. Contact us at (914) 428-7386 or complete our online form.